Flooding the Mediterranean

Nearly 6 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the ocean and evaporated faster than rivers could replenish it. This created a salty desert that persisted until about 5.3 million years ago. One hypothesis — the Zanclean megaflood — suggests that the Mediterranean refilled rapidly through an erosion channel near the Strait of Gilbraltar. A new study bolsters the concept by identifying geological features near Sicily consistent with the megaflood.

The team point to a grouping of over 300 ridges near the Sicily Sill, once a land bridge dividing the eastern and western Mediterranean and now underwater. The ridges are layered in debris but aren’t streamlined, suggesting they were rapidly deposited by turbulent waters, and date to the period of the proposed flooding. For more on the Zanclean Flood, check out this older post. (Image credit: R. Klavins; research credit: A. Micallif et al.; via Gizmodo)

#erosion #flooding #fluidDynamics #geology #geophysics #physics #science #turbulence #ZancleanFlood

A day after an earthquake caused a landslide that allowed the ocean to start flooding into the great dry abyss to the east,the water's power violently widens the gap and now a thousand Amazons flood into what will soon be the Mediterranean Sea again. The local animals have come to a large rock that will one day be named Gibraltar for safety and a view. Except the #Pelagornis, they're more interested in the fish falling down.

#ZancleanFlood #Pliocene #Miocene #Neogene #waterfall #paleoart #MyArt